President Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama should put to rest some questions about his administration's commitment to human rights in China. The meeting, which happens amid a tense period in the US-China relationship, is a welcome symbol of the Obama administration's dedication to keep human rights on an ever more crowded – and challenging – bilateral agenda.

It is important to note that the disagreement over meeting the Dalai Lama is not new. Every American president since 1990 – George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W Bush – met with the Dalai Lama, often multiple times. In each instance, the Chinese government responded in a similar manner as to the current meeting. President Clinton's "drop by" sessions with the Dalai Lama were met with angry statements from the Chinese. And when George W Bush attended the televised awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama in 2007, the Chinese government called the event a "farce". Given this history, any other reaction by the Chinese government to the meeting would be considered uncharacteristic.

This meeting with the Dalai Lama, however, comes at a time when the Chinese government is especially sensitive to moves it deems threatening to its sovereignty. Between the United States' most recent arms deal with Taiwan, international concern regarding a slew of arbitrary detention of human rights activists in China, and growing concern of widespread oppression to Tibetan and Uighur activists, the Chinese feel the pressure to react more strongly than usual. This sensitivity may explain the harsher statements coming from Beijing.

In response, President Obama was clear in word and deed that he would forge ahead with his meeting with the Dalai Lama and have his administration speak out when China unjustly imprisons human rights activists in China, among them most recently Liu Xiaobo. At the same time, President Obama is not doing anything different than past presidents, making clear he recognises Tibet as a part of China and would be talking with the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader and that America will always champion human rights and religious freedom around the world. Today's meeting is emblematic of these commitments.

But the hardest part – advancing human rights in China – will come afterward. China's human rights conditions have deteriorated in the past couple of years, with greater restrictions on online activities, human rights lawyers and activists, ethnic minorities, and migrant workers. America's track record in persuading China to improve its human rights has been tepid at best, and it looks to grow more difficult in light of China's growing role in economic and security challenges that China and the United States share.

The president's meeting today with the Dalai Lama demonstrates that the US remains committed to its founding values. But going forward President Obama will need to show that the meeting is more than a symbolic gesture and make clear that human rights will stay at the top of the US-China agenda.

• Megan Adams is a research intern at the Centre for American Progress